The End and The New Beginning
by HallowRain8587
Summary: Sometimes we do what we have to do to survive and to allow our loved ones to do so. The outcome is not always what is expected. Begins with DH and ends before Epilogue. AU
1. Chapter 1 The End

**Disclaimer: The characters and places you recognize are the property of JK Rowling. The ones you don't are figments of my imagination.**

**The End**

First week of July, 1997

Relationships are hard. Hermione worked as hard as she could to make and keep them because she has lived much of her life without them.

She grew up an only child of dentists. Her parents' first love was each other and their second was their work. Hermione was a distant third. Her mother was an expert in reconstructive and implant surgery. Her father was at the top of his field in prosthetics and orthodontics. The Drs Granger had a lucrative practice and were world travelers because of their expertise. They had written papers and lectured at conferences.

Hermione was a surprise, midlife child and often left in the care of a nanny until she frightened the last one away with an accidental magic display about the time she was entering Primary School. After that she would go to the dental office and study in the back while her parents finished their work for the day. When they traveled after that, they would just take her along leaving her in the hotel rooms to study and read.

At school, Hermione did well. She did well in her classes. She did not do so well in relationships. Making friends was hard because she didn't have a point of reference. The isolation at home and lack of playmates made making friends next to impossible. She tried, but some said she tried too hard. Because she only related to adults she had no idea how to be a child. At recess, she was found reading a book instead of joining in games. In reality, she was afraid of failure because she didn't know how to play the games. She never had seen a jump rope until she was on the playground. The hopscotch drawn in chalk on the pavement was foreign. She didn't know the difference between twosies and no-bounce in jacks. She sat on the bench with her book and watched the boys playing games of chase and climbing the monkey bars. The only exercise she had done were the walks and jogging with her mother during their together time or swimming and golf with her father.

Her parents loved her as much as they could and were extremely proud of her ability to learn and insatiable quest for knowledge, but they just didn't understand the child. When she received her letter inviting her to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they were justifiably proud of her. They purchased the books and sent her off to her first year and headed off to present at a conference in Japan.

The first friends she made in her whole life were Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley and that was all because of a mountain troll. That and a lie to keep the boys out of trouble were the basis of a friendship that had lasted all of her years at Hogwarts. There had been ups and downs. She had been petrified following research on the basilisk and turned into a cat-girl in a polyjuice mishap. She had gone to the Yule Ball with one of the most famous Quidditch players in the world (and gone to bed crying). She had learned how to get doxies out of draperies and been the constant target of a screaming portrait, but she had friends.

Throughout the years, Hermione spent more and more time with her best friends, Harry and Ron and with the Weasley family until the summer after her sixth year. She was eighteen and only going to spend a few weeks with her parents before going to the Burrow. She didn't tell her parents that she would not be returning to school. She spent the last few days with them. Her mother took her shopping for summer wear and talked of their plans to finally take a "real" vacation. She played golf with her father and lost to him without him noticing that it had been intentional. They attended the theatre in the West End and a Shakespeare play at the New Globe. Dining out was a treat because she was finally an adult and they seemed to relate much better to her that they had in her whole life.

Those weeks flew by and Hermione made the arrangements for the Wilkes' to move to Australia in secret. She obtained passports, drivers' licenses and moved money to a bank account in their new names. She would handle the rest of the arrangements after they left. Now was the time. She moved in to perform the memory charm that would erase her from their lives. She looked at them sitting side by side on the sofa, sleeping in front of the telly. She put their first class plane tickets to Australia and their passports on the coffee table. She placed packed suitcases next to the sofa and placed a kiss on the brow of each parent. She moved through the house removing all traces of a daughter and turning her room into a guest room. All of the pictures had her image erased. Documents that reflected her existence were packed away and ready to be moved to a personal storage locker in Wales she had rented under a pseudonym. The rental was paid in full for two years in advance. These she would take with her, so she shrunk them and put them into a leather bag. She picked up her beaded bag and called for a cab to the airport. As she slipped out the door she woke her parents.

She sat in the locker and cried. The small case looked innocuous in the center of the room. If anyone other than Hermione were to open it, it would just contain a couple of old children's books and a rag doll. Hermione felt so alone in the moment. Her parents no longer existed to her and she to them. She was essentially an orphan and now was mourning the loss. She also mourned her lost childhood. Most of all she mourned because she was afraid that she might not make it through the task that Harry had been given. Her job in this quest, as always, was a supporting role. She would make certain that Harry had what he needed—food, shelter, a safe place to sleep, someone to bandage the cuts and heal the bones. She was frightened, but she could look back on the wonderful memories of the past two weeks she had spent with her parents.

**Hogwarts School DADA Assignment #6**

**Task: **Write about **loss**. This can be loss in any sense, such as losing a loved one to death or disease, or even losing them to another person, or they leave on their own terms. It doesn't matter how the loved one is lost, so long as loss is the key theme.

**Word Count: **Minimum 600 words.


	2. Chapter 2 The New Beginning

**The New Beginning**

First week of June, 1998

The war was over and Voldemort was gone. Hermione was excited to get on with her life. Her plan was to reverse her plans and actions of just a year ago. She had spent May healing and attending funerals for friends and those she considered her second family. Now it was time to retrieve her parents and restore their memories.

Hermione first went to the white house in an upscale neighborhood north of London. At first glance it had not been touched since she left it. But on a closer look, she could see where the interior had been torn apart. It looked like a burglar had been there. If she were a muggle and called the police, they would say that it was a burglary gone awry. Being a witch she knew that someone was looking for her parents and her, but did not want to draw attention to the house by causing greater damage. She went through the house carefully removing all magical tracers from the things that might give clues to the whereabouts of the occupants. Then she cast the same protection wards on the house that she had on the campsites during the horcrux hunt. She didn't add the notice-me-not charm to the house because that would have drawn attention to the fact that it was suddenly gone.

The next task was to repair and clean the house before retrieving the case from Wales. She repaired the furniture using magic sparingly and manually where she could. She went out to the rear yard and sat under a tall poplar tree on the wrought iron bench that circled it. Sipping from her cup of tea she planned her next moves. There was the case, and then she needed to find her parents and return their memories. She would need to restock the cupboards. A neighbor waved as they walked down the alleyway. Hermione raised her hand and waved back. This simple gesture made it all become more real. Mrs Addams came to the back gate and Hermione invited her in. They discussed the strange weather recently. Hermione did not tell her that the dark skies were caused by a wizard war, but commiserated about the lack of sunshine during the last of April and first part of May. When asked when her parents would be returning, Hermione said that they had taken an extended holiday in Australia, but should be home soon. When Mrs Addams left, she went back into the kitchen and washed the china cup and teapot. She went back out to the sheltered area under the arbor and apparated to Wales.

When she approached the storage locker, the manager came up to greet her. He wanted to know if everything was okay because there had been a break-in a few months earlier. He was concerned because Hermione's locker had been left open and everything cleared out except for a leather case. He had taken it to the office, but wanted a list of items that were missing to give to the insurance adjuster. Thinking quickly she said that there had just been an assortment of thrift shop and boot sale furniture and house goods that she had been accumulating for her first flat when she went to uni. She said that there was nothing that could not be replaced for less than a few hundred pounds. The manager tried to get her to file a claim, but in the end he gave her the storage space rent free for another ten years. Hermione walked away with the case shaking her head and wondered what she would store in Wales for the next eleven years (ten years plus the additional year she had left on the original lease).

When she returned home she unpacked the case returning all the important papers and documents to their original size. She went to the master en suite and removed a door that looked like access to the plumbing for the jetted tub. To the left were all the pipes and wiring, however on the right near the floor was a latch that when pressed opened a different panel which revealed an in-floor safe. Nobody had found this because it was covered in dust, cob webs and dust bunnies. Hermione opened it and returned her parent's important papers and the jewelry that her mother did not keep in a safe deposit box.

After she had completed the task, she returned the dust and cobwebs before closing up the hiding place. Hermione was ready to retrieve her parents. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the task. She walked through the house and made certain that all was in readiness. As she was moving toward the kitchen door with the portkey for the first portion of her journey in her hand, she caught the sight of a black cab pulling up in front of the house.

Hermione put the cracked tea cup portkey on the counter and went into the front parlor to look through the window. There were her parents coming up the walk hand in hand carrying the small bags and the cab driver was putting the other cases on the lawn near the kerb. Her father kissed his wife on the lips then unlocked the door to let her in. Turning to retrieve the cases and pay the cabbie, he caught sight of Hermione at the parlor window and waved. He called to her mother that their daughter was home.

Hermione was perplexed. How did her father know her and how did they know to come home? He had to know her because he was so casual in his wave. She turned to greet her mother.

"Hermione, how are you doing, dear?" her mother greeted, drawing her in for a hug and a quick kiss on her cheek. "Tell me what you have been doing."

"Give me a hug, Pumpkin," called her father as he placed the cases in the entry hall and moved into the parlor. "We have so many pictures of Australia for you to share our trip."

"We brought you something," her mother added.

Hermione felt as though she was in an episode of that old American television show, Twilight Zone. Her parents were acting as though they had just been on a normal holiday. They showed no signs of the memory charm. _"This is really scary,"_ she thought. _"What had happened? I know I did the spell right…."_

Her parents sat on the love seat and Hermione was on the floor across the coffee table from them. They showed her pictures of Ayres Rock and opal mines. They gave her a beautiful fire opal ring and matching ear studs. They talked of walks on the beaches and the wonderful B&amp;B where they had stayed for much of their holiday. It was so exciting to have them back and so weird at the same time. They ordered in Chinese for supper and continued to catch up. Hermione glossed over the more dangerous of her escapades, but regaled them with tales of Ron's cooking and Harry's fishing and the joys of living in a tent with two teen-aged boys.

When it was bedtime, Hermione climbed the stairs arm-in-arm with her mother. "I will be in to see you in a few minutes, Hermione. And don't forget to brush your teeth," Jean called as Hermione went into her room. Hermione showered and brushed her teeth, then put on her summer pajamas. As she climbed under the clean sheets, she smelled the crisp air with a hint of rain. She got up and closed the window most of the way and returned to bed as her mother entered the room.

Jean Granger sat on the edge of the bed and brushed Hermione's brown curls from her face. "I know you are full of questions. Auror Shacklebolt said you would. He gave us this letter for you and said that he had to hurry back. Something about a promotion, I think."

"Yes, he is now the Minister of Magic. It is something like Prime Minister. How did he know and how did he find you? I so wanted you to be okay. I was worried and didn't want anything to happen to you. I'm sorry I cast the spell without your permission, but I was desperate."

David Granger entered the room at this point and sat down in the window seat reading nook on the other side of the bed. "He explained it all to us when he came to Australia last month," he said. "It has taken us a while to acclimate to being ourselves and reintegrate ourselves into the real world instead of holiday world. It was a loving gesture. You have some wonderful friends in high places that love you and only want the best for you."

Hermione chuckled, "Friends in high places, friends in low places and a loving family, what more could a girl want?"

"Save your letter until we go to bed. We will talk in the morning. Oh, and if I ever find out that you have been cutting classes to fight wicked wizards again, you are grounded. Got it?"

"Yes, I've got it."

**SECONDARY ASSIGNMENT: The Magic of Love**

**Task: **Please write a follow-up chapter of your initial assignment. You should use the same characters as before, but this time, you should write about the characters being reunited. Such as if the lost character died, they have reunited in the afterlife or been resurrected somehow. However you like!

**Word Count: **Minimum 400 words


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